The present invention relates to a bottle that can be stacked on other similar bottles either with or without an intermediate carrier plate and bound or interlocked with adjacent bottles to form stable stacks. The invention also relates to a carrier plate for handling and displaying such bottles.
Efforts are constantly being made in the brewery industry, among others, to devise more rational methods of increasing productivity. The customers, normally retailers, place demands on flexibility when ordering different items of goods and wish for the goods to be delivered in a manner which displays the goods to their customers in turn.
For instance, there is a general wish for bottles to be delivered in shallow trays or on plates which can be stacked one upon the other and in which the bottles can be clearly seen, instead of using deep crates. In this regard, it is also desired that stacks of mutually different sorts of beverages can be loaded onto a single pallet.
Bottles are, as a rule, handled in breweries in boxes or crates, therewith making it necessary to transfer the bottles onto suitable plates or trays for display. This constitutes an expensive procedure.
In order to facilitate handling stacks of present-day bottle trays, it is necessary to first place the stack on a small xe2x80x9cslave palletxe2x80x9d and then place the slave pallet on a pallet of standard size. Among other things, this is necessary because the trays are so weak that a stack corresponding, for instance, to half the size of a standard pallet or to a third of the size of a pallet cannot be lifted solely by applying a lifting force to the bottom-most tray. Consequently, it is necessary to lift the stack with the aid of a separate stack-adapted slave pallet. Handling of such a stack in a brewery with the aid of a pallet trolley or the like is also problematic because of the instability of the stack.
There is described in my earlier PCT Application PCT/SE96/01466, a technique by means of which beverage-containing bottles can be handled in a rational, positive and very simple manner that does not require the bottles to be plucked from crates to trays, and vice versa, and which also enables a stack of trays and containers to be handled safely in a brewery, and facilitates loading a loading pallet with stacks that contain mutually different products. In order to achieve stable sideways constrainment of the bottoms of the bottles, the seats of the illustrated trays must be given relatively high walls and must fit well against the bottles.
WO 94/07758 and EP-A1-0 362 091 describe to other types of bottle trays that include seats in which the bottoms of the bottles are accommodated. These trays also require the use of high walls in order to achieve stable constrainment of the bottle bottoms. At least the solution described in the first-mentioned specification requires a relatively thick tray, since the trays must be capable of supporting the weights of all overlying bottles. Trays of this nature cannot be produced by vacuum-forming thin plastic plates, and are not suitable for one-time use only.
An object of the present invention is to provide a bottle, or flask, that can be stacked directly on other bottles with or without the use of intermediate trays or carrier plates, and which provides in either case stable sideways constrainment of both the upper parts of the bottles and their bottoms.
Another object of the invention is to provide a bottle-carrying plate which can be adapted for use when applying the aforesaid technique of lifting a stack of trays filled with bottles, and which will provide still more stable constrainment of the bottles standing on the plate, therewith providing very stable stacks even when stacking carrier plates that carry empty bottles.
A further object of the invention is to design the plates and bottles so that said plates can be produced from a material of such thinness as to enable them to be made from the same plastic material as the bottles with good economy, for instance from recoverable PET, which is very difficult to injection-mould. In addition to practical advantages relating to the handling of returned bottles and plates, it has been observed that a very high degree of friction is generated between a plate and a bottle that are both made of PET. Thus, it will preferably be possible to manufacture the carrier plate by vacuum-forming processes, preferably from a plastic sheet or foil that is so thin as to enable it to be used viably as a disposable article.
The invention is based on the realization that bottles, and then particularly bottles whose lower parts are inclined inwardly, cannot be supported stably without great difficulty when using solely an external constraining means, unless such means is made relatively high. Stability is greatly increased when there is also used a constraining means that projects into the bottle. It is also possible to exclude the outer constraining means completely, when using such an inner constraining means.
Accordingly, the particular characteristics of a bottle of the kind defined in the first paragraph are that the bottom surface of the bottle includes a cavity which is intended to receive at least a part of the capsule of a bottle in an underlying layer, wherein the cavity has at least one constraining guide surface that coacts with a corresponding guiding or constraining surface of the capsule or some other part of the bottle in the underlying layer or a corresponding guiding or constraining surface of a constraining means that projects up from a carrier plate located between the layers of bottles, with a tight fit, and in which constraining means at least a part of the capsule of the bottle in the underlying layer will fit such as to provide stable lateral constrainment of the upper part of a bottle in an underlying layer in the bottom of a bottle in a overlying layer while the weight of the bottle in the upper layer is transferred to the bottle in the bottom layer.
Bottles of this kind can be stacked directly on top of one another, wherein in the case of high stacks the bottles in mutually adjacent stacks are bound together in each third-fifth layer. This enables stable bottle stacks to be constructed with a desired number of bottles in each layer or tier.
The cavity will conveniently have a generally vertical inner cylindrical constraining surface adapted for coaction with the capsule of a bottle in an underlying layer, or with a part of a constraining means that projects up from a carrier plate and closely embraces the capsule.
It is preferred that this constraining surface will combine with a generally horizontal support surface that is intended to coact with a corresponding support surface on the capsule or on said constraining means. The bottle support surface is preferably ring-shaped and located immediately beneath an outer part of the bottle capsule.
An inventive carrier plate that is intended for handling and displaying bottles of this kind and constructed to enable several plates upon which bottles are placed to be stacked one upon the other is particularly characterized in that the plate is provided at each bottle position with an upstanding constraining means which mates with a corresponding cavity in the bottom of a bottle standing on the carrier plate such as to constrain the lower part of the bottle against lateral movement, and that the constraining means has a configuration which enables it to receive at least a part of the capsule of a bottle in an underlying layer such as to constrain lateral movement of the upper part of said bottle.
As before mentioned, the carrier plates can be vacuum-formed. When stacking bottle-carrying plates on top of one another, the bottles in each layer will be forcibly constrained at both their upper and their lower ends, so as to form a very stable stack.
It is preferred that the upstanding constraining elements have the form of downwardly open dome-shaped parts in which the capsules-of the bottles in an underlying layer will be received firmly, so as to be constrained against lateral movement. In this regard, the dome-shaped parts will suitably have a generally vertical inner cylindrical constraining surface adapted for coaction with the capsule of a bottle in an underlying layer.
It is also preferred that the dome-shaped parts have a generally horizontal inner stop surface for coaction with the capsules of the bottles in an underlying layer, wherein the stop surface forms a support surface for bottles standing on the carrier plate, and wherein the weight of bottles standing on the plate is transferable to bottles in an underlying layer via said support surface without subjecting the plate in general to any appreciable load.
Since the weights are transferred from bottle to bottle in each stack without unduly loading the plate, and since the bottles are constrained one within the other, the plate can be made of very thin material and at low cost.
The support surface is preferably ring-shaped and is located above an outer ring-shaped part of the capsule of an underlying bottle. That part of each dome-shaped part that lies radially within said ring-shaped support surface can therewith have an upwardly projecting part adapted to be received in a corresponding cavity in the bottom of an overlying bottle.
This further improves constrainment of the bottles. Furthermore, the presence of such an upwardly projecting part prevents bottles from being placed on the plate that are not intended for use together with the plate.
Further characteristic features of the carrier plate will be evident from the dependent Claims directed thereto.
The carrier plate and the bottle can both be produced conveniently from a recoverable plastic material, preferably PET, wherein waste plates and bottles can be ground together in the brewery and re-shaped into thin plastic sheets from which new inventive carrier plates can be vacuum-formed. This eliminates all transportation of empty carrier plates from a plastic industry to the brewery.